Strong Knuckles

[BRETTY1]

Anyone got any ideas how you build up your knuckles to make them extremly tough.

If you look at kung fu masters there knuckles are really tough they are so tough that the skin on their knuckles looks like ruff skin on the soles off feet.

I was told a long time ago that to achieve this you must do hundreds or even thousands of pressups on your knuckles which also builds up grip strength does anyone know how accurate this is?

[egg_uk]

in a programme i watched about the shaolin on the discovery channel they would punch a wall everyday for an hour a hand, holding a newspaper between their knuckles and the wall. they did this for a couple of years. its an awesome programme, shows how they still maintain strength and flexibility into the 70's and 80's, even one old guy could turn his foot to face almost directly behind him, and another person throwing a pin through a sheet of glass.

[BRETTY1]

in a programme i watched about the shaolin on the discovery channel they would punch a wall everyday for an hour a hand, holding a newspaper between their knuckles and the wall. they did this for a couple of years. its an awesome programme, shows how they still maintain strength and flexibility into the 70's and 80's, even one old guy could turn his foot to face almost directly behind him, and another person throwing a pin through a sheet of glass.

That sounds a cracking programme do you know whats its called i would'nt mind watching it

[hab34buy]

I'm guessing press-ups and push-ups are the same... so I think I can answer this (at least to some degree ), because until an unrelated injury occured a couple years ago, I used to do a few hundred of these a day on the knuckles. I'm now down to zero a day, sooooooo I'm just speaking from previous experience not current .

The first question of course is what you are trying to accomplish with the tough knuckles. I'm going to assume two possible answers and go from there (I'm not saying either is what your going for... just assuming some possibilities): 1) grip strength increase 2) Striking/breaking/punching power or hardness.

In terms of grip strength, there is very little if any that will be gained. Go with other training for this.

In terms of striking/breaking/etc. power, this can be beneficial under certain conditions. The skin of the hands will not necessarily become calloused depending on how one goes about this training. I am of the camp where avoiding callouses is one of the goals of training. What instead can occur is a toughening of the tissues and a hardening of the bones. One of the main things this trains is that it trains the muscles of the wrist, forearm, and hand to operate together in the lined up position that is used for punching. Through this the excercise draws it's greatest benefit. Punching is an unnatural movement for the human body, therefore, this excercise helps to condition the body to the continual stress on the muscles and joints in this position that it is unaccustomed to using.

It definitely when used properly and with other training programs can be used to strengthen the skin of the hands while maintaining hand health.

I will however say this next statement very loud for anyone who needs to hear it (and I'm not saying that this is your thinking Bretty1): NEVER SACRIFICE HAND HEALTH IN ORDER TO GET TOUGH LOOKING HANDS OR MARTIAL ARTS HANDS. There are martial artists out there who end up developing hands that are weapons, but are no longer hands... just needed to get that out of my system.

Let me know if this answers the question, or whether you were looking for a routine or something else...

Just my opinion, probably guys with a lot more knowledge about this on here

Edited August 6, 2007 by jw7

[egg_uk]

ive only seen it once, and that was a couple of years ago, cant remember what its called. has shaolin in the title, it shows a lot of their training from when they enter at 4, i think 3-4 something like that, and how they only eat at 4am and 10.30am, so just two bowls of rice, and whatever else is in it, everyday. actually i really want to watch it again. going to have to try and find it on the discovery page. if i find it ill post the title in this thread.

[makey98]

Brookfield talks about hand hardening in his book, "The Grip Master's Manual." He talks about how he experimented with different hand toughening techniques in order to be able to pound nails into wood. He refers to karate experts or trainees that try some different methods to toughen their hands and warns against this type of treatment. He says that if you try some of those methods you will cause tissue/bone/or nerve damage and may develop a condition called pre-arthritic hands. Be very careful with this type of training and I would not recommend it. Unless your livelihood depends on the "toughness" of your hands I would not try any of that stuff. The risks are too great and you are probably better of with strengthening your wrists and other aspects of your body and working on proper punching technique. Be careful!

[pope]

I do a lot of knuckle pushups on the carpet.......... it seems to have thickened the skin a bit, hittin the heavy bag might help.

[Silverback]

Hi there the best way to toughen up the knuckles is to buy a canvas punch bag and fill it up with black eye beans. filling it with black eye beans will eliminate arthritis and still toughen the skin up. instead of punching walls!!. you need abit of give & the beans are perfect for this.

At first punch untill your knuckles are red raw. try not to cut them or u will have to wait for them to heal!!

remember repeatedly beating the skin without cutting it will build monster knuckles, but you are bound to cut yourself now n again. when you do either wait till healed or cover the cut up n carry on.

this is popular with kun- fu/wingchun & bare knuckle fighters.

ive been punching my canvas bag like this for about 3 months and my knuckles are solid!! callouses have formed and the skin is so hard now i can punch full power all day long without cutting/ripping the skin. They look menacing though! and you will get people lookin at them!! i suppose its a good deterant. you will have Gorrilla Knuckles!!

another thing that the old bare knuckle fighters use is after a workout get some methalated spirits and rub that into your hands. this toughens the skin so much. especially after grip workouts like pinching concrete blocks.

After about 2 months your knuckles will be brutal.

evey now and then i shave them down with sand paper because if they get too big, they could rip apart when punching or grazed accidently!!.

So keep them short & they will be solid like a brick wall!! and keep punching the bag daily!! 5 to 10 mins a day.

punch with a vertical fist instead of the standard horizontal boxing style. the reason boxers punch like that is because they are protecting their fists with padding which the gloves supply.

Bare knuckle punching will automatically strengthen the wrists & forearms and add meat to your knuckles.

[Alawadhi]

Do push ups on conceret and punch makiwara each day 100 to 200 reps. Start from 30 reps though. But mas oyama (who killed a bull with a single punch-believe it or not) suggest 30 punches on makiwara each day only. Thats according to his book karate school. Mike reeves (holds world power breaking record) suggest in his book the best way to build knuckle strength is to do push ups on them. But doing these won't save you 100% from injury when you are older. If you want strong AND healthy hands do iron palm the way Wing Lam teaches it.

I also assume press ups are the same as push ups?

Edited August 13, 2007 by Alawadhi

[boland magyar]

i did karate for ten years and i found that push ups on the knuckles helps with hardening but the makiwara is best.

but this type of training is not big and not clever........dont do it you have been warned

boland

[NHBBareKnuckler]

If no one should mind, I'd like to add a responce here...

There is a system:

A bucket of:

Sand

Raw rice

A fine gravel

Pebbles (river bed, they’re founded)

Punch a bucket of it until you a raw, until it no longer affects your knuckles. Then you move onto the bucket of the next item to punch. It doesn’t happen over night, nut it will happen.

A makiwara is really where it’s at as well. I used both for some time and it worked very well. Don’t get a padded one, maybe one with 1 or 2 sheets of leather over it then move onto a rope wound makiwara ending in bare wood.

Also, before you go punching things, understand that there is a form to a punch. If you don’t come to the proper extension you’re going to run into joint issues and so on. Bunches like a hook are somewhat different and you can hit things with a bent arm. Keep in mind though, when you punch something or someone while standing your whole body is part of the movement.

Punching straight down into a bucket even though it is soft, repletion can still case an injury over time. Just be mindful and you’ll be fine.

Jack Dempsey used pickled pig skin to toughen his face by the way…

[egg_uk]

found some youtube videos with bits from this programme, and remembered this thread

punching at the end of this video and this looks like the whole programme

[tdbas1]

Ive watched that documentary before, its just mind blowing what those guys can do. I think we would have to trade in our day jobs and train all day everyday.

Anyways good luck

Take care

Tom

[mrgiarpi]

I practice knock down karate and the most usefull exercise (to me) is to perform push ups on my knukles, slowly, 30 seconds down 30 seconds up. In this way 1-2 reps are more than enough. I found that this exercise is very usefull not only for hand conditioning but also for improve my striking power.

(sorry for my bad english ).